


In and Out of Love

by lighthelix



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Cute, Falling In Love, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Manga Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:33:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28291674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lighthelix/pseuds/lighthelix
Summary: Tooru is 6 when he meets Hajime for the first time, but they are 19 when they lose contact.
Relationships: Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru
Kudos: 3





	In and Out of Love

Tooru is 5 when the new neighbours move in. They came with a big moving truck parked in front of their driveway, a cute little family that introduces themselves as the Iwaizumis. Tooru notices the boy first. He is about Tooru’s age, with spiked black hair and carries a bug net. He simply watches the boy from his window, fascinated with the new neighbour, unable to drag his eyes away.

***

Tooru is 6 when he meets Hajime for the first time. He’s biking to the nearby store to pick up ingredients for their dinner when he passes the boy from next door. The boy huddles near a bush when he notices Tooru watching him and stands to meet him. “Hey you’re the kid from next door”, the boy states. Tooru stands in shock at the bluntness of his words, before quickly responding. “You know, you really have a way with words,” the boy simply glares back. 

“My name’s Tooru Oikawa,” he says. “Iwaizumi Hajime,” the boy responds before returning to huddle in the bush once more. Tooru hums, “I - wai - zu - mi - Ha - ji - me, that’s a mouthful, I guess I’ll have to think up a nickname”. Hajime shrugs still focused on his task. 

“Anyways, what are you doing? It can’t be comfortable in those bushes,” Tooru says. Hajime turns towards him excitedly. “I’m looking for potato bugs! You know, the ones that curl up when they’re afraid? They’re my favourite type of insect, do you want to help me find some?” he blurts out. Tooru marvels at the change in character from a standoffish persona, to an excited boy. The task at hand forgotten, he kneels next to Hajime to help search. The boy, encouraged by the other’s participation, starts to talk about his favourite methods to find the insects, and why potato bugs are the best type of insect. Tooru makes a discovery that day and hasn’t forgotten it since. That Tooru will never fully understand Iwaizumi Hajime, but he doesn’t want to ever stop trying.

All of a sudden, something comes to him.

“Hey, I thought of a nickname. Do you want to hear it?” Tooru asks. Hajime looks up but says nothing. “How about lwa-chan,” He sings with a smile. Tooru is not prepared for the hit to the back of his head that happened next.

***

Tooru and Hajime are 8 when they start playing volleyball together. It starts with them catching a glimpse of the national match of Japan vs. Argentina on a neighbourhood TV. Hajime dismisses it as a silly match, and that they had better things to do than watch a random sport, but from the instant he sees the setter bring the perfect set to a spiker, he becomes hooked on the sport. He practices with an unwilling Hajime daily, before the latter of the two grows to love the sport too.

***

Tooru and Hajime are 12 when they join the school’s volleyball team, Hajime as a wing spiker and Tooru as his setter. The two stay late daily practicing, with Tooru setting up perfect tosses for his hitter. They walk to and from school together, occasionally stopping by the neighbourhood store to buy a snack of milk bread. One day Hajime offers to buy the snacks for him, and something inside of Tooru warms. He dismisses it and gratefully takes the free snacks.

***

Tooru is 15 when he realizes he’s gay. The realization comes after a series of his many fangirls confess to him all in one afternoon. “Seriously Shittykawa, maybe you should accept a confession. Having a girlfriend wouldn’t be the end of the world, you know. Definitely give you someone else to bother at least,” Hajime nudges his shoulder. Tooru gives the suggestion some thought, before realizing he has never wanted to be with a girl. Tooru laughs it off, saying he would think about it Iwa-chan, earning a glare from Hajime.

Tooru does think about it on his way home from practice, imagining scenarios with a girlfriend, but the girl he pictured always warped to form a figure with stronger arms, taller and male. He panics, shaking the imaginary man from his head. 

One day after a particularly difficult practice, Hajime helps Tooru stretch out, pushing his hands on the other’s shoulders to help stretch his back. Hajime reaches to put his hands in position for the drill but as soon as they make contact, Tooru realizes his heart starts beating faster, and his face flushes. Panicking, he excuses himself from stretches, claiming to feel ill and runs out of the gym. He throws himself into an empty washroom stall, cradling his head in his hands, processing the events that just transpired.

He makes two realizations

He, Tooru Oikawa, is gay  
He likes Iwaizumi Hajime

***

They’re 17 when they lose to Shiratorizawa at the finals. Tooru had been unable to toss a set able to break past their blockers and Hajime was not able to break past with a decent spike. The walk back from the gym is filled with silence and regret. “You shouldn’t blame yourself, Oikawa. Don’t look at me like that I know you are,” Hajime points out. Tooru rolls his eyes, “Iwa-chan, you know if I had just practiced a little bit more, sent better tosses, made better calls then maybe we could have won!” He exclaims. Hajime stops and grabs Tooru by his shoulder so that they are facing each other. “No one thinks that, we all tried our best and it just wasn’t good enough. So we’ll just have to beat them next year. Come one let’s get some milk bread, my treat” Hajime offered, running ahead. He doesn’t notice the other standing with cheeks red and heart beating out of his chest.

***

Hajime and Tooru are 18 when they lose to Karasuno at the semifinals. The crushed dreams of returning to beat Shiritorazawa weighing on them, they walk home once more with no tickets to nationals. Hajime turns to face Tooru with the intent to lecture him before he interrupts. “Please don’t Iwa-chan. There’s nothing we can do now, I know that we could have done so much more to beat Tobio-chan, but it’s over now. We’ll never go to nationals,” he cries. The two stop in the middle of the sidewalk tears silently falling down their faces. He had planned to confess after they had made it to the finals and beat Shiritorizawa, but with that plan gone, there’s nothing left to wait for. Tooru turns towards Hajime and takes a deep breath to gather his courage. “This is also probably a really bad time to tell you this,” he laughs, “but I really like you Iwa-chan. Like like like you, and I know you don’t feel the same way I just wanted to let you know,” he finishes. Hajime looks up at Tooru, stunned. Taking that silence as rejection, Tooru goes to walk away before a hand grabs his arm and pulls him towards Hajime. They stand with their faces inches away from each other and wait for the other to make the first move.

Oikawa is 18 when Hajime kisses him for the first time. 

“I like you too, Shittykawa.”

***

Oikawa and Hajime are 18 when they decide where they will go after high school. Oikawa’s offer comes first, to moving to South America and joining the Argentinian league. He immediately went to refuse, but Hajime stopped him. “You have to take this offer Oikawa. I don’t care if you want to stay to do university volleyball with me. This is your chance,” Hajime pleads. “But Iwa-” Tooru whines, before Hajime shuts him up with a kiss. “You’re accepting the offer Loserkawa before I accept for you”. Tooru rolls his eyes but accepts the offer from the league. Hajime receives his acceptance letter from UC Irvine a few days later while helping Tooru pack his things to move. Tooru squeals with excitement for him, running around his room, exclaiming that they would only be a few hundred kilometres away instead of thousands. He immediately accepts and begins preparing with Tooru for their new life and homes.

They leave with the promise to call and text whenever they can and for the first few months, everything is great. Tooru does amazing on his new team, and Hajime quickly adapts to life in the States. They call every night and talk about their days, and how they would need to visit each other soon. But as their schedules become busier, they find less time to call and then only resort to simple texts throughout the day, but after a while even those stop.

Oikawa and Hajime are 19 when they lose contact.


End file.
